Sheffield Steelers 6-2 Cardiff Devils FT

Gerad Adams limped on to the Sheffield Steelers’ bench to take command of his first home game tonight. And it turned out to be an uplifting experience.

The new coach, who broke his leg badly in a fall off a roof in January, is clearly struggling to make a full recovery.

But he’d been hoping for a double winning weekend, following Saturday’s penalty shot victory at Nottingham Panthers would take his mind off his personal misfortune.

Fate engineered it that Adams was this evening up against Cardiff Devils, the club which dislodged him from his coaching role in December.

Steelers were without Mark Thomas and Steve Goertzen for the visit of Devils, who lost last night at home.

Yet the Arena side were in exhuberant form, D-man Danny Meyers scoring a rare goal inside the first minute and jason Hewitt adding a second before the first break.

In a lower tempo second session, Markus Rama and Max Lacroix traded goals, the Sheffield marker coming at 39;19, just at the right time.

Sheffield went on the goal rampage in the last period, Phil Hill, Chris Blight and Hewitt scoring, with Max Birbraer getting a consolation.

SATURDAY REPORT

Gerad Adams found out how tough his job is going to be in the first eight minutes, last night.

But by the end of the evening, with a 3-2 win in his pocket, he also found out how magical it could be. Sheffield Steelers’ new coach took his team to Nottingham Panthers, for his first match in charge.